Palm Springs Activities

Worth getting out of bed for

Viewpoint

Take the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway (www.pstramway.com) 1,800 metres up Mount San Jacinto. In just 11 minutes, it’s possible to go from the desert floor to well above the snowline. The views on the way up and from the top are, ahem, highly spectacular.

Arts and culture

Palm Spring has some fantastic modern architecture. If you want to tour the city’s mid-century Jetsonian heritage then pick up the Palm Springs Modern Committee’s map from the Visitor Center (www.palm-springs.org) on North Palm Canyon Drive. For some good ol’ fashioned razzamatazz, the notorious Palm Springs Follies (www.psfollies.com) has Broadway-calibre song, dance and comedy acts from the Thirties and Forties performed by ‘a cast old enough to have lived it’; it’s very good fun.

Something for nothing

Some of the best examples of Palm Springs Modernist architecture are easy to find; track down Albert Frey’s futuristic City Hall complex, two miles east of Downtown at 3200 East Tahquitz Canyon Way, and E Stewart Williams’ Coachella Valley Savings and Loan Building (Washington Mutual) on South Palm Canyon Drive and Ramon Road.

Shopping

Palm Canyon Drive is the one of the best places to head to for boutique shopping. Here you’ll find interior design and fashion stores all a strollable distance from one another; there’s excellent Modernist and Hollywood Regency style furniture at Modern Way (www.psmodernway.com). Every Thursday from 6–10pm, the street is closed to traffic between Amado Road and Baristo Road to host Villagefest (www.palmspringsvillagefest.com), a lively open-air night bazaar with stalls, arts and crafts, live music and food. The Gardens on El Paseo (www.thegardensonelpaseo.com) in Palm Desert, about 15 minutes east of Palm Springs, is the city’s most exclusive shopping area. Cabazon Outlets (www.cabazonoutlets.com) on Seminole Drive in Cabazon also has a wide choice of brands under one roof.

Daytripper

The Joshua Tree National Park (www.nps.gov/jotr/) is a spectacular area of canyons, oases and abandoned gold mines. Rock-climbing and mountain biking are popular here, and there are excellent hiking trails in the park that lead you through areas that were once the hideouts of cattle rustlers. They’re now the domain of fascinating desert wildlife such as the kangaroo rat, coyote, jackrabbit, and six species of rattlesnake. Alternatively, Los Angeles is a two-hour drive away.

Activities

There are more than 100 golf courses in the Greater Palm Springs area, but although the choice is excellent the demand is often high, particularly in winter; make sure you book your tee times in advance. The desert landscape around Palm Springs is also popular with hikers – favourite locations include the Joshua Tree National Park, and the Indian Canyon Trails, about five miles south of the city. If you don’t want to go it alone, you could join a wilderness safari trail (www.palmspringshiking.com); you can also take a bicycle tour of the Indian Canyons (www.adventurebiketours.info). Somewhat perversely, you can visit the unspoilt landscapes of Joshua Tree National Park in an air-conditioned Hummer (www.elitelandtours.com). A more peaceful way to see the desert is by hot-air balloon (www.balloonabovethedesert.com).